Page 36 - ENGLISH SPEAKING E-MODULE

Modul XII. What is storytelling?

Activity I

1. The Objective of learning
a. To identify the terms of storytelling
b. The students able to practice and create the roleplay about story.

c. To motivate students in speaking.
d. To enable you in introducing your storytelling in front of class

2. The Description of material

A different way of knowing
Most cultures have a history of storytelling as a way of passing on information

to the next generation or introducing themselves to people from other mobs, societies,
communities and nations.

Australia has many long and proud histories of storytelling, from the strong
storytelling traditions of Australia’s Indigenous peoples, to those brought by early

European convicts and settlers and other waves of migrants from Europe, Asia, the

Americas and Africa, to the parables imparted by religious texts such as the Bible, the
Koran and the Mahabharata. For many communities, story is life and life is story. For

others, stories powerfully communicate important life lessons.

Methods of storytelling can include dance, music, poetry, prose, fiction, fables
and illustrative proverbs or parables. Different cultures have different stories

(although it is quite interesting to see how often the same themes re-appear in very
different circumstances). In this booklet we focus on storytelling mainly in the written

or spoken form, because this is where most of our experience is, but most of the
principles would apply to any form of storytelling.

For consumers, storytelling provides a powerful way of imparting our

experiences, including our considerable knowledge of the services and systems that
serve the people diagnosed with ‘mental illness’. It can help us to inform and educate

friends, family and communities, as well as clinicians, academics and even other
consumers about our rights and needs and those of the consumer community as a

whole.
Through storytelling, people diagnosed with ‘mental illness’ have also found

commonalities with other communities that have experienced prejudice and

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